Monday, April 23, 2012

Swedish Meatballs

I'm embarrassed to admit that my first experience with Swedish meatballs was from a frozen Budget Gourmet entree as a kid. They were good enough to have left a favorable impression on me. The only other memory of having Swedish meatballs was from Ikea. For something so delicious, these memories just don't do it justice. As with all things that I enjoy, I set out to make them from scratch. As usual Cooks'Illustrated did not disappoint.

The meatballs are tender, flavorful and moist. The sauce is rich, but a little on the thin side. I didn't have ligonberry jam on hand, but I did have a bag of frozen cranberries to make cranberry sauce. I love the tart cranberry sauce that plays against the creaminess of the sauce and the decadent meatballs. I am able to get 36 meatballs from this recipe. The cooked meatballs and cranberry sauce freeze really well. You'll just have to make a new batch of the sauce. To cut back on the fat, I like to bake these meatballs in a mini muffin pan at 375 for 20 minutes. The recipe is available for you here.